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A 28-year-old Swedish woman has been reported missing during a trip to Sri Lanka, leaving only a Facebook message to say that she had been robbed and beaten.

Marie Jonsson Sillén from Vargarda in Vastergotland in central Sweden went missing in early March while on a holiday to Sri Lanka. She was due to return to Sweden last Monday.

Interpol issued a missing persons on March 16th and the Swedish police, foreign ministry and Sweden's embassy in New Delhi are all involved in the search for the missing Swede.

A woman claiming to be the 28-year-old has reported to have been in contact with the local authorities by telephone.

"It is not yet confirmed that it is her," Pia Roed at the Foreign Ministry told news agency TT.

Jonsson Sillén's disappearance is described as 'mysterious' and the last confirmed correspondence from her was a Facebook message posted on March 5th, and an email sent to her best friend a couple of days later, according to the Expressen daily.

In the Facebook post the 28-year-old described how she had been robbed and beaten and there are fears that she has been kidnapped.

A woman who had met Jonsson Sillén on the plane to Sri Lanka and spent the first few days of their holiday together with her, has confirmed that she met her again in the Mirissa Beach area of Sri Lanka and was told of her ordeal.

Jonsson Sillén was reported to be in the company of a western man and a Sri Lankan woman and the woman took this to mean that she was being given help.

"It was first when the woman came home that she realised that Marie had disappeared," Jonsson Sillén's friend Nathalie told the newspaper.